How do I set territories and quotas that the team does not immediately game?

The practical method for combining top down targets with bottom up rep feedback, and the attainment bell curve to aim for: 60 to 70 percent around quota, 15 to 20 percent above, 10 to 15 percent short.

Sales Quota Planning: How to Align Targets and Drive Results

From Everstage by Arvinda Bharathi 13 min read

• A healthy distribution is 60 to 70 percent of reps at or slightly above quota, 15 to 20 percent well over, 10 to 15 percent short.
• Run baseline and stretch quotas, paying a higher rate only on the stretch band.
• Activity quota example: 50 calls a week converting at 10 percent into meetings or demos.
• Gartner: nearly 90 percent of B2B sellers report burnout and over half are job hunting, so unrealistic quotas cost you people.

A nine step territory design framework that ends where it should, with tying territories to quota and compensation. The step most teams skip is exactly the one that causes the arguments.

What Is a Sales Territory Plan? A 9-Step Framework for RevOps and Sales Leaders

From Everstage by Adithya Krishnaswamy 16 min read

• 58 percent of B2B companies rate their own territory design as ineffective.
• Four design models: geographic, vertical, account-based, and hybrid, chosen after segmenting accounts into tiers A, B, and C.
• Balance territories on account count, revenue potential, and deal complexity together, not on headcount or geography alone.
• Average quota attainment sits around 47 to 50 percent, which is the number territory design is meant to move.

The operating cadence rather than the design theory: review quarterly, change annually, roll out in phases, and the line worth quoting back to anyone defending a complicated plan, that if a rep needs a spreadsheet and a half hour meeting to understand it, it is already too late.

10 Sales Compensation Best Practices That Drive Results

From Everstage by Visaka Jayaraman 12 min read

• Only 28 percent of reps hit quota in 2023 (Ebsta B2B Sales Benchmarks).
• Harvard Business School research puts the lift from accelerators at about 9.5 percent.
• High performing SaaS companies run a 50:50 or 60:40 pay mix, balanced for enterprise AEs, incentive-heavy for SDRs.
• If a rep cannot explain their comp plan in 30 seconds, simplify it.
• Review a new plan at 2 to 3 months, then do a full review at six.

Splits the RevOps hiring decision into three company phases and says plainly when to outsource instead of hiring. It is the clearest answer we found to the question founders actually ask.

RevOps: When, How, and Who to Hire

From Stage 2 Capital by Liz Christo 9 min read

• Three phases: outsource RevOps to consultants while you are still finding product-market fit.
• Bring it in-house at go-to-market fit, the same moment you hire a sales leader to build the team.
• Make that first hire a Director: senior enough to partner with revenue leadership, junior enough to stay hands on.
• Keep the outside consultants alongside the first hire rather than replacing them.

Territories are the half of this question people hand wave, and this session treats them as a design problem with fairness of earning opportunity as the test. That fairness test is what stops the team gaming the plan.

2025 Sales Planning Masterclass Series: Data-Driven Sales Territory Planning Fundamentals

On Forma.ai 49 min